Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 483 – Pain and Debt

Mari flanked Jeremy, clutching his arm.

Lux didn’t attack.

Didn’t even raise his hands.

He just watched.

Because this?

This wasn’t a fight.

It was play.

He was watching two entitled predators flail in a room full of mirrors, realizing too late that they weren’t the top of the food chain.

He could end it.

He could drop one line of Wealth Rewrite and turn their legacy into liquid shame.

But not yet.

He wanted them to sweat.

To squirm.

To understand just what they’d touched.

Ariel’s pain wasn’t just personal—it was debt.

And debt?

Always collected interest.

Jeremy, wide-eyed and frothing with desperation, charged again.

Lux stepped aside.

Again.

Let him slam into the podium—again.

Mari tried to catch him, but stumbled under his weight. Her heel snapped. She shrieked.

Sira crossed her arms and muttered, ”I’ve seen better form from drunk children.”

Lylith remained seated, her ruby circlet glowing faintly. She was watching Lux like she was tasting him from across the room. Measuring.

He ignored her.

His attention was still on the two Delmars—bruised, flustered, humiliated.

He finally crouched, resting on one knee, just close enough for Jeremy to look up at him.

Lux tilted his head.

”You talk too much,” he said quietly. ”You perform too much. You touch things you shouldn’t. You don’t deserve her pearls. You don’t deserve the breath in your lungs.”

Jeremy flinched beneath him, chest heaving, red in the face. Bruised pride bloomed all over him—visible, ugly.

”Shut up!” Jeremy barked, eyes wide with humiliation and desperation. ”She was ours! We raised her!”

Lux’s smile died.

”Raised?” he echoed, voice dropping to something darker. ”You kidnapped her. You brainwashed her. You gave her trauma... A deep one. Something that will scar for the rest of her life...”

He didn’t shout. He didn’t roar.

He spoke it.

Soft. Controlled. Like he was reading a sentence on a balance sheet.

Then, without fanfare, without any glowing special effects or chanting incantations, Lux reached out and placed a single hand on Jeremy’s shoulder.

A light touch.

That was all.

[Skill Activated: Wealth Rewrite]

There was no flash. No surge. Not a single mortal in the room noticed anything different. But inside Lux’s mind, the [System] flared to life like a stock market crash wrapped in velvet.

[Rewrite: Target — Jeremy Delmar]

[Executing partial drain of fortune web...]

[Analyzing holdings...]

[Delmar Vaults (X4): Gone]

[Liquid Gold Accounts: Frozen]

[Artifact Insurances: Revoked]

[Offshore Holdings: Discovered and dissolved]

[House Delmar’s primary prestige score: -87%]

[Physical charisma assets (siren-based): Diminished]

[Domain Influence: Transferred]

[Estimated Remaining Net Worth: 2.7%]

[Processing...]

Lux let the system finish processing.

Jeremy didn’t even feel it.

Not at first.

But Mari did.

She gasped, visibly staggering back as her enchanted earrings cracked spontaneously. The sapphire in her bracelet dulled, losing its glow like a dying ember. Her posture faltered, like gravity had suddenly shifted just under her. Something invisible had snapped, and her instincts flared in alarm—but she didn’t know why. Her breath hitched, skin crawling with the inexplicable sensation that something precious had just been yanked from her fingers.

Jeremy blinked, dizzy, confusion spreading across his face like a bruise. He looked down at his own shaking hands. ”What—what the hell—”

He swatted Lux’s hand away like it burned, but the damage had already been done.

Lux stood smoothly. Calm. Measured.

Smiling.

That cool, infuriating CFO smirk that had flipped economies and charmed political widows into quietly signing away empires. He said nothing. No explanation. No boast. No threat.

He just reached up, brushed an invisible crease off his lapel, and turned away.

Jeremy sputtered. ”What did you—?!”

Lux didn’t stop walking.

Didn’t even glance back.

And that was what made Jeremy’s panic bloom.

The silence.

The not knowing.

The instinctive, skin-crawling truth that something had just happened. Something important. Something they couldn’t see. Couldn’t name. Couldn’t undo.

Mari stared down at her dim bracelet, horror slowly dawning in her eyes—but she didn’t understand why.

She couldn’t.

Because Lux?

Lux never said a word.

Lux turned to the room.

”Well,” he said, casual as checking a clock. ”You’ve officially ruined your auction. I’d say I’m disappointed, but... this was more fun than expected.”

He started walking off, slow and smooth.

Jeremy, still trying to stand, wheezed behind him, ”Y-You can’t just ruin me—”

”Oh, Jeremy,” Lux said over his shoulder, ”I didn’t ruin you.”

He paused.

”I revalued you.”

He kept walking. Toward the VIP aisle. Toward Sira, who hadn’t moved but was still glowing in silent delight, clearly soaking in every second of the drama like it was her new skin serum.

Then Lux stopped.

Turned again.

Faced Jeremy one last time.

”And just one more thing...” he said, voice suddenly softer, colder.

He walked back slowly, close enough that Jeremy, still on the floor, had to look up at him.

Lux leaned down.

Eyes locked.

Incubus energy curling faintly beneath his breath.

”Don’t ever dream of touching my woman.”

His words were not loud.

But they landed like thunder under skin.

”Sira is mine.”

Sira smirked in the background, clearly pleased.

Lux’s eyes flared again—just a glint. Just enough to let Jeremy’s mortal soul tremble.

He leaned closer.

”Because if you do?” Lux whispered. ”If you ever think about looking at her, touching her, breathing near her...”

He smiled.

Calm. Calculated. Beautifully cruel.

”...then the next auction items on display will be you. And your family.”

Jeremy paled.

Mari backed away instinctively, grabbing her brother’s arm and pulling him behind her like a shield.

Lux stood upright, dusted his hands off, and nodded to the crowd like a businessman who’d just ended a presentation on why everything they believed in was overpriced.

Then he turned, walked back toward Sira—who was already standing, waiting, arms folded, lips twitching.

”You done?” she asked, lazy amusement in her tone.

”For now,” Lux said.

Sira’s smirk deepened. ”That ’mine’ line? Hot.”

”You liked it?”

”I nearly moaned.”

”Noted.”

They walked past Lylith Seravelle—who watched Lux with the kind of calculating hunger reserved for warlords and rare wine.

He nodded at her, barely.

She smiled.

Predator recognizing predator.

And as they stepped out through the tall glass doors, the chaos behind them bubbling, Lux finally exhaled.